Age diversity in career development case studies and interviews, UK and Hong Kong

This research will investigate how Nussbaum and Sen’s Capabilities Approach (CA) can be used by employers, employees and unions to develop quality work which can enable older workers to delay retirement. It will apply CA to an organisational context. Within four case study organisations, the research team will: •through interviews with managers and employee representatives identify current employment practices in relation to work and retirement •using a questionnaire developed with the CA conceptual framework, survey employees on how they define and seek to achieve quality work; whether quality work will lead to delayed retirement; and how workplace factors enable them to achieve their goals •in collaboration with older workers, their managers and employee representatives, and using data from the survey, identify management interventions to better enable older workers to achieving quality work. The research will be conducted in the UK and Hong Kong. In addition to assessing the applicability of CA to managing work and retirement, the research will also compare older workers’ work orientation and employers’ age management practices within these two contrasting institutional and cultural contexts.